Setback area RLP for a §34 BauGB boundary development

Hello everyone,

Last month we bought a plot of land in RLP. The neighbor built his house exactly on the side property line in the 1960s. There is also a declaration from 1962 where the two then property owners agreed that "each has the right to build a residential house side by side on their boundary."
In the notarized purchase contract it states, "The seller assures that he has not initiated any entries in the building encumbrance register and that he is not aware of the existence of any building encumbrances."

The real estate agent said that you could place the house wherever you want.

However, someone told me that we have to leave 6m of space between the houses because the setback area from the neighbor also lies on our property? We would like to set the house only about 4m from the boundary, as otherwise the house would become quite narrow.

What I also have to say: The plot slopes about 1m down towards the neighbor (however, it was apparently filled in at the time, because there is a height difference towards the street and the neighbor; and if you consider the street and neighbor levels, there is even about a 2m height difference). That's why we don't want to put the garage between the houses because someone said that we would then have to build it at the basement level of the neighbor's house? We want to build our house with a basement (since one side is semi-exposed anyway).

I attached a sketch for better understanding.

Can someone help me or tell me whom I can contact? The person from the building authority is apparently on vacation...

Thank you very much in advance for your help!

Can someone help me or tell me who I can contact? The person from the building authority is apparently on vacation...

He can gladly stay there – you need the land registry office. Notarially sworn affidavits can be worth a lot in a worst-case scenario if the day was long. However, encroachments on setback areas as you fear would be noted in your land registry sheet or they do not exist ;-) I suspect more of a building obligation here – what does say?

To me, it sounds more like you are only allowed to build directly onto the neighbor's house, like in a semi-detached house. Does the neighbor's house have windows on the side that is on the boundary?

If you do not build directly onto it, you will probably have to maintain the distance.

But I am not an expert in this field.

Hello (sorry, I still don’t know how to quote here... :) )
thanks for your answer...
Well, in the land register excerpt I received before the purchase, there is nothing about that. However, I read that something like that is recorded in the register of encumbrances? But I think that didn’t exist at that time. Do you mean that something like that was then entered in the land register beforehand?
Oh, a construction obligation wouldn’t be so great, we don’t want to build directly adjoining... because it’s much lower and we wouldn’t have anything from the basement. Because without a basement, I don’t think the plot makes much sense and we have to found anyway down to the basement floor.

I’ve also attached our first idea as a sketch, but then the garage would be half a floor lower and would also have to be deeply founded.

yes, the neighbor has 2 windows there... the house is so low that his ground floor window almost stands on the lawn of our plot.
He was allowed to put the windows there according to this statement: "Furthermore, xxx permits xxx to install 3 gable windows to enliven the gable facade. The gable windows will be bricked up again when the residential building xxx is extended." so he has to close them... but we would let him keep them, at least the one on the upper floor... but only if we "don’t have" to build there (whether with garage or house).

Couldn’t an agreement be drawn up stating that the neighbor may keep his windows, but we are allowed to build our house up to 3m next to his house? Or would this kind of agreement be irrelevant to the building authority and they wouldn’t allow it anyway? (I think it also concerns fire protection, etc.?)

The new draft simplifies the whole thing after all. I would have also placed the garage in between.

I would not accept windows facing my property.

yes, the neighbor has 2 windows there...

in case drops by later: quickly put the other facts on the table - not everyone likes having things drip-fed ;-)